Our Story

We’re helping businesses boost their performance on the beach. But the BizTreat story, ironically, begins in a city. More precisely, the city of London, a place separated from the beach by a five-hour drive. It was here that a soon-to-be surfing enthusiast resolved to follow her dreams and travelled to a small island in the Philippines. Inspired by her experiences living in a tropical paradise, Veronika re-entered the business world, and she brought with her a whole new way of looking at the company culture.

Veronika loved her job. However, leading a successful career in a fast-paced city comes with a price. Burning out from busy working lives led the product manager to take time out. Upon arriving in the surfing capital of the Philippines, Siargao, initially for a holiday, she was instantly sucked in. It was decided – the island became her home.

In Siargao, the former city professional felt immediately motivated and more productive thanks to daily sunrise surf and yoga sessions. But it wasn’t only the new lifestyle that offered a different, more mindful way to think about the work. Having previously led teams to a more empowered way of working, Veronika noticed that the same capabilities like collaboration, agility, creativity and prototyping, which became decisive business success factors, were present in the Islanders’ approach to solving everyday challenges. For Siargaonons it was the isolated, resource-poor and nature reliant environment that had set the necessity of coming up with new kinds of survival skills. For businesses worldwide, it was the technology revolution and the globalisation that didn’t give them the other choice but to embrace the digital transformation from within companies. Siargao has become an inspiration for a new way of developing a business culture of the future.

Veronika got excited about the opportunity and began with user research followed by product design, building relationships with vendors and collaborators and putting together the team. She built BizTreat from scratch in a mere four months. As a massive fan of validating ideas in the real world, she ran BizTreat Beta aimed at founders and independent business executives in April 2017, funded from her own pocket. That turned out to be a success and a massive learning experience which helped BizTreat to pivot. After this BizTreat established itself as an experiential learning company for teams. Veronika’s passion for and trust in what BizTreat has to offer immediately attracted high profile partners and first clients.

The future of business is exciting, but most importantly, it is already here. The BizTreat team is on a mission to help company teams become as inventive and as stoked as Siargao’s islanders.

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

Expertise

Our mission is take you on a deep dive through your company culture. What inspires your employees? How can we harness their inspirations and ambitions to facilitate positive business outcomes? Our team of battle-tested industry experts are here to help you focus on the issues that matter by taking care of everything from food and accommodation to planning and executing a personalised program of inspirational exercises for you and your team. Simply put, at BizTreat we do things comprehensively, and even offer a pre-event diagnosis, professional facilitation and wellness training, and post-event consultation and coaching to ensure you’re focusing on the right thing, in the right way, with nothing but lasting value in mind.

Nature and Location

Getting away from the office every now and then is essential. Nature has a proven healing effect on people, with rejuvenating benefits so rich and plentiful they can’t be overlooked. That’s why a core aspect of our mission is to transport you to some the most special places on Earth, wherein the lush and diverse environments play an instrumental part in all our activities. In doing so, we create wholly unfamiliar scenarios and situations that encourage your team to become more adaptable, creative and collaborative.

Physical Activities

Can surfing inspire your team to be more present in the workplace? Can martial arts empower your employees’ presentation skills? And can yoga teach you to be more empathetic towards your clients? Physical fitness is a huge contributor to mental health and professional success. We know this all too well and make it our heartfelt mission to interweave physical exercise in each of our company-tailored activities.

Involvement in the local culture

Booking a holiday and staying in a resort is easy… and conventional. Where’s the fun in settling for a traditional off-site retreat focused around exclusive company events? BizTreat is more than just a retreat, it’s an experience. We entrust your employees with new real-world perspectives by taking your team out of the office and into the unfamiliar. Our mission is to give your employees the opportunity to engage with the world around them, to let them experience diversity first hand and even discover new ways of addressing pressing social and environmental problems.

Immersive Learning

We learn through play until about the age of 5, which is when we’re told that playing is no longer cool. What a mistake! To cater to all learning styles, BizTreat is committed to being a learn through play programme. We swap the boring, never-ending presentations for sensory activities that give participants the opportunity to self-reflect. We’re passionately determined to seeing your employees embark on a life-changing journey of self-discovery that they’ll remember forever, instead of remaining unchanged by traditional instruction. And most importantly, it works. Active and experiential learning engages attention spans while radical collaboration methodologies builds ownership of all challenges. BizTreat was born out of market shifts. In the same way that new products and services emerge by confronting everyday problems, the world of work requires next level ideas and treatment to bring it into the 21st century. BizTreat’s philosophy is a result of deliberate, constantly evolving processes that reflects those market shifts. With us, you can be sure that you’re signing up for a holistic experience with a purpose that generates impact and value for your business, while making it all feel like play, of course.

MICHAELA KURUCOVA, SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Experienced in conceptualising and communicating business vision, Michaela helps us spread the message and share our journey. Collecting intelligence from BizTreat’s customers, she assures that our programs address their needs. Michaela currently lives in London & works in a tech start-up scene but she’s an island girl at heart.

VERONIKA JANECKOVA, FOUNDER

Having spent almost 10 years around startups, businesses and organisations of different kinds, Veronika founded BizTreat to conceptualise a new way of working and training for teams. By working closely with the team, Biztreat’s network of industry experts and customers, she navigates BizTreat’s product ship - constantly optimising towards value. Veronika also delivers some of BizTreat’s training sessions in Agile and Radical Collaboration.

MANUEL MELINDO, PROFESSIONAL SURFER

Born and raised in Siargao, Manuel is one of the country’s finest surfers. Most recently, Manuel has been serving as a coach and mentor to the young surfing talent that congregates around the world-class break, Cloud 9. At BizTreat, Manuel directs the surf part of the programme.

ALEX GOLDYN, PROFESSIONAL YOGA TEACHER

Alex completed her yoga teacher training in the Himalayas. At BizTreat, Alex teaches a mix of gentle Yin and soulful Vinyasa Flow, where together with her students she is attempting a harmony between strength and flexibility, effort and ease, activation and relaxation. Alex’ has a background in psychology and her mission is to guide her students in carrying the above qualities from the yoga mat into their daily routines.

GAPS SABUERO, PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMOGRAPHER

Gaps Sabuero is a bodyboarder and photographer whose work was among the top 5 finalists in the 2016 Red Bull Illume awards. He is also one of the top 55 action sports photographers in the world. At BizTreat Gaps and his team capture the most memorable moments in and out of the water.

SASHA TINKOVA, EVENT MANAGER

Sasha’s background is in marketing and brand partnerships. Throughout her career she’s been helping brands create unprecedented value propositions by focusing on improving customer experience. Co – founder of BizTreat, her domain within the team is in developing partnerships and event management.